Clearing a seeding stand is an essential part of forest management, especially in production forests, in which the objective of forest management is to achieve or even exceed production targets as calculated in the number of timber unit volumes, for example. However, clearing a seeding stand is not limited to production forests only and may also be considered a duty of a forest owner. The purpose of clearing a seeding stand is to ensure that the desired plant growth thrives in the seeding stand by removing the undesired plant growth. If the intention is to grow a spruce forest, seedlings of other wood species are cleared from the spruce seeding stand so that the spruce seedlings thrive.
MenSe manufactures clearing tools and blades for harvesters and excavators. Clearing tools and blades typically have two blades that are on top of each other with the prongs of the blades pointing in the same direction. The blades cut the plant growth as it is trapped between the overlapping blades. The length of the blades defines their working width that is much greater, 130 to 230 cm, for instance, than the diameter, 6 cm, for instance, of an individual plant growth to be cut.
Known cutting tools, such as clearing tools and blades, require precise alignment with the plant growth to be cut by bringing the blade of the cutting tool in contact with the plant growth being cut. Because the blade cuts with its entire length, which is quite long in relation to the typical diameter of a trunk in the plant growth, the cutting of plant growth beside a timber tree may be very difficult without damaging the timber tree. On one hand, when managing the blade, it is necessary to pay attention to other objects, such as rocks or other soil material in the terrain which do not necessarily have a commercial value like timber trees but may adversely affect the condition of the cutting tool when they come into contact with the blade. On the other hand, clearing a seeding stand with the cutting tool is possible only if the cutting tool is brought to the seeding stand and possibly momentarily even in contact with the soil material.